66th Primetime Emmys: Outstanding Writing in a Drama and Comedy SeriesLeave a comment

After the supporting categories the past week and before we move on to the lead acting next week, let’s take a break in between and cover both the writing and directing categories. First up, the pen owners a.k.a the writers get the spotlight today as we tackle the two major writing categories.

Louis CK was the frontrunner in this category for a long time now, but it seemed like So Did the Fat Lady lost quite its buzz after Sarah Baker’s exclusion in the Guest Actress category and from Louie’s six episode submission this year. While I don’t think it’s necessarily wise to exclude Louis CK here especially after his win two years ago, he’s no sure thing either. Silicon Valley manages to get in for its season finale with the very witty masturbation joke but I think this type of cool jokes doesn’t end with wins but simply with nominations (see: Community’s nod two years ago). Episodes seem to have its core fans in the writing branch as it’s 3/3 so far getting in here for all its eligible season. Thus, I won’t be surprised if they suddenly give it a win. But then again, maybe it’s just a show they love to nominate and not give wins with. After submitting a lot this year, predicting Veep for either writing or directing seemed unwise, but the fact that they manage to nab one here indicates a really strong support for the show. Lastly, pilots are like instant Emmy baits for writers, and Orange is the New Black’s lauded series opener is very much a spoiler here. If they really love the show, I won’t be shocked if this gets carried to a win as well But for now, I’m leaning on the hip semi-Emmy favorite who’s on an onward trajectory with Emmy love so I’m going with Veep’s “Special Relationship to win.

As for their dramatic counterpart, it’s such a surprise to find out that Breaking Bad hasn’t won in this category yet, but they have two contenders here to change their fate. First, they have Ozymandias which is probably the most lauded episode in the show’s history and such a tour de force hour in television. And then, they also have the series finale Felina written by Vince Gilligan. In the same manner that series pilots are very baity to reward, the same can be said for series finales (see: Friday Night Light’s upset win here for its finale in 2011). While it seems more logical that they get rewarded for their direction, Game of Thrones continue to rake in nomination for its writing instead. The season finale The Children is their nominated episode this year; however, if their previous event episodes the past season like Baelor and The Rains of Castamere wasn’t able to factor in, I don’t think it will be any different this year. True Detective only is eligible for one episode this year, but they managed to submit their best written episode, and if voters don’t really like to reward Breaking Bad here, I think this is the show that will benefit from that the most. To complete the nominees, we have the season opener of House of Cards which contained a big shocker in the middle of the episode. In the end, I think we’re bound to see a Breaking Bad writing win in play, so it’s between its two nominated episodes already. While Ozymandias is the more popular choice among the internet community, I don’t think they can resist the chance of awarding showrunner Vince Gilligan an Emmy here, so I say Felina wins in the end.